A group of world-leading economic analysts has called on Sri Lanka to suspend its external debt repayments in order to cope with the severe devastation caused by Cyclone Ditwah, foreign media reported.
The appeal has been signed by 120 prominent economic experts, including Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz. The group has urged the international community to support an immediate pause in debt servicing and to initiate a fresh debt restructuring process to bring Sri Lanka’s repayment obligations to a sustainable level.
According to reports, the signatories include Indian development economist Jayati Ghosh, French economist Thomas Piketty, former Argentine Economy Minister Martín Guzmán, and Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics, among others.
The experts noted that the extensive environmental and economic damage caused by Cyclone Ditva has significantly worsened Sri Lanka’s financial situation. They pointed out that the country has already sought additional financial assistance from the International Monetary Fund to address urgent needs and is likely to require further borrowing in the future.
In this context, the group emphasized that continuing external debt repayments would place an unsustainable burden on the country’s recovery efforts. They therefore called for the immediate suspension of Sri Lanka’s external debt payments and a new restructuring framework that reflects the country’s changed circumstances following the disaster.
